One known technique for detection of latent fingerprints on surfaces which may be porous (such as paper) is the use of optical imaging for example under ultraviolet light.
Another reported approach is to bake a sheet of paper carrying a latent fingerprint so as to develop an image.
Whereas such methods may be considered in some circumstances to have usefulness as a preliminary non-destructive testing technique, it is considered there are significant limitations and only poor results can be achieved with published methods.
Another known approach is to subject the substrate on which the fingerprint resides to a selected chemical treatment. Various reagents have been tried such as multi metal deposition (MMD) and amino acid sensitive reagents such as ninhydrin, 1,8-diazaflouroen-9-one (DFO) and 1,2-indanedione.
In referring to the above mentioned known techniques, no admission is made that any of these techniques are part of the common general knowledge in Australia or elsewhere.
It is considered that it would be desirable to have new and useful alternative techniques capable of embodiment in advantageous methods.